[serendipity_000]

Assalamu Alaikum

Since January 11, 2002, when the first twenty prisoners were brought to Guantanamo, over seven hundred boys and men have been held in this legal black hole; now over three hundred prisoners remain in custody. In 2007, a Pentagon-sponsored report portrayed the prisoners of Guantanamo as a threat in support of the federal administrations repeated characterization of the prisoners as "worst of the worst." In response, Vince Warren, Executive Director of Center for Constitutional Rights writes about the status of the prisoners: We have visited men driven to despair with less and less faith that they would ever see justice, men who were turned over for enormous bounties to the U.S. because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time, or men who were fleeing the conflict, or men who were cooks, goatherders and other minor actors swept up and locked away, now lost to their families and branded terrorists forever.

At most, five percent of the men at Guantánamo were captured by U.S. forces. In five years, only ten people out of 786 at Guantánamo have ever been charged with a crime; only one ever went before a Military Commission, and not a single one is currently charged. Not content to mount attacks on op-ed pages around the country on attorneys for representing their clients pro bono and not content to repeat their rosy descriptions of the privileges afforded a handful of detainees as though that in any way represented the conditions of most of the detainees who are locked up in solitary confinement 23 hours a day, rarely see sunlight yet always have the lights on in their cells, continue to be subjected to temperature extremes, sleep deprivation and brutal force-feeding when they choose the only form of non-violent protest of their conditions available to them by denying sustenance, the government commissioned a report that would massage the statistics and re-categorize the data so that they could try to convince the world that the people they had been keeping locked up indefinitely for more than five years really were, as they claimed at the start, "the worst of the worst."

Writing to a detainee is a simple way of breaking through the dark cloud of secrecy and isolation surrounding any institution where torture, cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment is permitted. Generally, no messages are delivered to the detainees, including from their relatives. However, attorney Marc Falkoff reports that two of his clients have received cards and that they are very appreciative. Whether these cards are delivered or not, we urge you to approach this action as a devotional prayer as much as a political act.

What can my congregation do?

Choose a prisoner from list below: Some of the prisoners below have information about them posted on the web; some do not. Our objective is to make a personal connection to break through the total anonymity and convey the message `I remember you´ and that we do believe in fair and just treatment of all prisoners in US custody.

Prayers:
Include a prisoner in your prayer meetings; in the weekly congregational prayers; or in your daily individual prayers.

Post Cards or letters:
· Buy plain postcards or postcards with pictures of natural landscapes or flower (no persons or animals).
· Mail these cards with pre-printed simple messages in English and Arabic, or you may write the words yourself.
· Write as a group or congregation en masse on a regular basis, or take turns individually or in small groups.

In keeping with recommendations of Amnesty International, we ask that you:
· Please keep your message simple such as: "We are thinking of you."
· Don´t discuss politics or accusations against the prisoner
· Please be sensitive to different cultural and religious mores when choosing cards with images on them

Postcard should be addressed as follows: [Prisoner Name - ISN number]
Camp Delta
P.O. Box 160
Washington DC 20053

Writing to authorities: Decide if you will write as individuals or on behalf
of your institution and if to follow up in case of no response.

DETAINEE INFO:

Please keep your message simple such as: "We are thinking of you."
· Don´t discuss politics or accusations against the prisoner
· Please be sensitive to different cultural and religious mores when choosing cards with images on them Postcard should be addressed as follows: [Prisoner Name - ISN number] Prisoners on this list are clients of Professor Marc D. Falkoff, author of Poems from Guantanamo

Mahmoud Abd Al Aziz Abd Al Mujahid, ISN #31 (St. Bartholomew's)
Adil Said Al Haj Obeid Al Busayss, ISN #165
Majid Mahmud Abdu Ahmad, ISN #41 (St. Mary's)
Mohammed Mohammed Hassen, ISN #681
Abd Al Malik Abd Al Wahab, ISN #37
Faruq Ali Ahmed, ISN #32 (St. Peter Claver Church )
Muktar Yahya Najee Al Warafi, ISN #117 (Brooklyn Meeting)
Salman Yahya Hassan Mohammed Rabeii, ISN #508 (St. Nicholas-on-the-Hudson)
Yasin Qasem Muhammad Ismail, ISN #522 (Morningside Meeting)
Abdulsalam Ali Abdulrahman Al-Hela, ISN #1463
Allal Abd Aljallil Abd Al Rahman Abd, ISN #156
Saeed Mohammed Saleh Hatim, ISN #255
Jamal Muhammad 'Alawi Mar'i, ISN #577 (Church of Holy Trinity)
Mohammed Nasser Yahia Abdullah Khussrof, ISN #509
Uthman Abdul Rahim Mohammed Uthman, ISN #27
Hassan Bin Attash, ISN #1456
There is also Majid Khan -- also known as Detainee No. 010020.

[bluey]

Insha'Allah I've been thinking about doing this but I didn't get around to it. I'm going to put this on my to-do list. May Allah subhanna wa ta'ala release them and other prisoners who are imprisoned unjustly. Ameen. Jazakallah khair for sharing this.

[serendipity_000]

Assalamu Alaikum,

OTHER THINGS YOU CAN DO:

Write to US Authorities

Rear Admiral Mark H. Buzby
Commander Joint Task Force Guantanamo
Department of Defense
Joint Task Force Guantánamo
Guantánamo Bay
CUBA
APO AE 09360
Salutation: Dear Rear Admiral

The Honorable Condoleezza Rice
Secretary of State
U.S. Department of State
2201 C Street, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20520
fax: 1 202-261-8577
email: _Secretary@state.gov_ (mailto:Secretary@state.gov)
Salutation: Dear Secretary of State

General Bantz John Craddock
Commander United States Southern Command
3511 NW 91st Avenue
Miami, FL 33172-1217
fax: 1 305-437-1077
Salutation: Dear General

The Honorable Alberto Gonzales
U.S. Department of Justice
950 Pennsylvania Avenue N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20530-0001
fax 1 202-307-6777
email: _AskDOJ@usdoj.gov_ (mailto:AskDOJ@usdoj.gov)
Salutation: Dear Attorney General


General Recommendations for writing appeal letters (from Amnesty International)

Express your outrage and/or other feelings about the indefinite detention of hundreds of prisoners at Guantanamo.

Call for all other detainees to be given full and fair trials or else released.

Call for a full and impartial investigation into the allegations of torture and ill-treatment prisoners in US custody in Kandahar air base and Guantánamo Bay, and for all those found responsible for abuses to be brought to justice.

Call for the US government to set up a commission of inquiry into all aspects of the USA´s "war on terror" detentionpolicies and practices.

Letters may be handwritten or typed.
Letters do not have to be long or beautifully composed. All the letters must do is express your concern and your request. Think of each letter as having four parts:

1. introduction
2. identify issue and your concern
3. action that you want the official to take
4. thank the official for his or her time and ask that he or she answer your appeal

Letters should be brief, factual and, most importantly, polite. Sign your name with a closing such as, "Yours respectfully," or "Yours respectfully and sincerely,"

Don't make direct accusations. It is better to assume that the authorities are not informed about and are willing to seek a remedy to the alleged human rights abuse.

Point out and applaud recent positive developments in the country (e.g., releases, announcements of official investigations into torture allegations, etc.)

If there have been violations of human rights by government opponents (killings, kidnappings, etc.), you may refer to them, expressing your concern about violence from any side.

Don´t discuss politics. The issues you are presenting are those of fundamental human rights that should transcend all barriers. You may refer to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights to emphasize this.

ma'salama